Dachniy Instant Kissel Forest Berries Drink Mix, Russian 300g (10.6oz)

Dachniy Instant Kissel Forest Berries is the mixed forest berry kissel drink mix from Dachniy, a Russian food brand — the kissel (кисель) instant powder in the forest berry flavor, providing the traditional Slavic starch-thickened fruit drink in the convenient instant format for the household that wants kissel without the home-cooking process from fresh or preserved berries. Kissel is one of the oldest and most culturally embedded hot drinks in the Russian and Slavic tradition — the starch-thickened fruit drink that predates tea as a hot beverage in Russia, recorded in Russian chronicles and folk literature, and present on the Russian table through the medieval, imperial, Soviet, and modern periods as the drink given to sick children, served at bliny breakfasts, and drunk at the festive table as the dessert beverage that is neither quite a juice nor quite a pudding. The forest berry (lesnye yagody) flavor is the most evocative of the Russian kissel flavors — drawing on the wild mixed berries (blackcurrant, lingonberry, rowan, bilberry) that the Russian tradition of summer berry-gathering supplies, producing the deep-ruby color and tart-sweet flavor of the classic Russian forest kissel. Prepare with boiling water according to packet directions, serve hot as the traditional warming kissel in winter, or allow to cool and serve thickened as a summer fruit drink — the Russian starch-fruit beverage the diaspora household reaches for in the cold months when the body wants something between a hot drink and a dessert.